Ongoing renovations at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park will shut down the Kilauea Visitor Center for the next two years.
Park staff held on Tuesday what they said would be the last “After Dark In The Park” event for the foreseeable future, telling guests that the historic visitor center will be closed to the public for construction. Park spokeswoman Jody Anastasio later told the Tribune-Herald the closure will happen “as soon as the end of September,” although a specific date has not yet been set.
The renovations are necessary, said HVNP environmental protection specialist Danielle Foster, because of the loss of the Jaggar Museum at Uekahuna Bluff following the 2018 Kilauea eruption.
“The next question was, ‘how do we replace the functions that we’re losing at that (building),’” Foster said. “Because that was a lot of space and a lot of things were happening up there.”
Those functions, it was ultimately determined, will be shifted to the visitor center as part of a major improvement project throughout the park.
The expansion of the visitor center is considered phase two of the greater park improvement project, with phase one of the already underway. The first phase will expand the entry into the park from Mamalahoa Highway, with new administration lane at the park entrance is nearly completed.
Eventually, a traffic circle will be installed to improve the flow of vehicles into and out of the park, although that work has not yet begun.
The second phase will begin within the next month, and will close the entire visitor center along with its neighboring restroom facility and a portion of the parking lot.
While about 46 parking spaces near the visitor center will still be available, visitors seeking guidance through the park will be directed toward a “temporary visitor control station” near the Kilauea Military Camp ballfield. Ranger Dean Gallagher said the station will consist of a small pre-fabricated building and some toilets.
Gallagher added that the park will also begin rolling out a mobile ranger station to various HVNP parking lots to distribute materials like maps and brochures.
Foster said the layout of the temporary visitor station is still up in the air, but added that there should be some area nearby where buses will be able to park.
Meanwhile, the former site of the Jaggar Museum — which was dismantled earlier this year — will be reforested and returned to a natural state. Most of the museum’s exhibits have been loaned to the Pahoa Lava Zone Museum for a 99-year term, Foster said.
“So you can take bets on whether Pahoa will still be here in 99 years,” joked Ken Hon, scientist-in-charge at the Hawaii Volcano Observatory.
For his part, Hon said construction of a new HVO field station at Kilauea Military Camp to replace its previous facility at Uekahuna is well underway, with the ground floor mostly completed as of Friday.
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
